1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for booting a computer system and, more particularly, to a method for booting a computer system after a floppy disk drive is removed.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the progress of computer science and technology, electronic data size is larger and larger, and storage media vary therewith. A floppy disk cannot satisfy the storage of mass data. The advent of a universal serial bus (USB) device makes a user no longer use a floppy disk to store data, and this is mainly because the floppy disk has low capacity and low stableness, and data is always unable to be retrieved. Therefore, the floppy disk drive is not expected by the user when he or she buys a personal computer.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a conventional method for booting a computer system. As shown in FIG. 1, it is a booting procedure of the computer while an operating system is installed. First, a power supply is turned on (step 101), and then a power on self test (POST) is executed (step 102). Since there are a plurality of devices in the computer system, whether elements in the system are normal is checked first when the computer is booted. Then, the operating system is loaded from a compact disk (CD) (step 103). When the operating system is installed, sometimes it is necessary to install drivers of some hardware devices first and then install the operating system when the hardware devices are detected. Then, whether the driver needs to be retrieved from the floppy disk drive A is determined (step 104). In addition, the floppy disk having the driver is prepared first (step 105) to install the driver from the floppy disk drive A. If it is determined that the driver needs be retrieved from the floppy disk drive A, the prepared floppy disk is disposed in the floppy disk drive. The driver is retrieved from the floppy disk drive A (step 106) to be installed. After the driver is installed, a virtual hard disk is created to store files needed in installing programs (step 107). The installed file is copied to the virtual hard disk from the compact disk, and then it is installed. If it is determined that the driver does not need to be retrieved from the floppy disk drive A in step 104, step 107 is performed directly to create a virtual hard disk. After step 107 is performed, the operating system is continued to be installed (step 108). At last, the booting procedure is finished (step 109).
From the conventional technique, the floppy disk drive is needed under certain conditions. When programs of the operating system are installed, the driver needs to be retrieved from the floppy disk drive. To install the operating system, the user has to buy a floppy disk drive additionally. In addition, the user has to keep the floppy disk or copy the driver, which make the user feel troublesome.